Low Red Moon - Caitlin R. Kiernan

 

    2001; 371 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book 2 (out of 2) in the “Chance Matthews” series.  Genres: Urban Horror; Fantasy.  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

 

    They make such a strange couple.

 

    Chance Matthews hears spirits talking to her.  Often in her dreams.  Sometimes when she’s awake.  She also sees lots of blood.  Often in her dreams.  Sometimes when she’s awake.

 

    Deacon Silvey is a recovering alcoholic.  He struggles mightily to not have a relapse.  He’s also a recovering psychic.  He “sees” and “feels” things that aren’t there.  The police like to use him because of that gift.  He’d like to get rid of it.

 

    Deacon and Chance are married.  She’s Chance Silvey now.  She’s also eight months pregnant.  I wonder how many of those strange “parental gifts”, if any, the baby is going to inherit.

 

    Other beings are wondering about that too.

 

What’s To Like...

    Low Red Moon is the follow-up to Threshold, which I read about fifteen years ago.  There is a time gap between the two, during which Chance and Deacon marry, and prepare for parenthood.  In effect, that allows Low Red Moon to be a standalone novel.  The story is set primarily in Birmingham, Alabama, but eventually takes a road trip to New England.

 

    I liked the character building.  Chance and Deacon may be co-protagonists, but they struggle to make the marriage work while somehow fending off killers and monstrous entities.  The baddies are diabolically resourceful which adds a lot of high tension to the story.

 

    Chance is a Paleontologist which again resonated with me.  At one point she is drawn into the “Science vs. Religion” discussion, or, as she calls it, the “Age of Rocks vs. Rock of Ages” debate.  To her credit, she handles it deftly.  But to be clear, this is first and foremost a tale of Urban-Horror, with several dark-side fantasy creatures thrown in for good measure.

 

    Everything builds to a bittersweet and unexpected ending.  There are losses for the Powers of both Good and Evil.  There is room enough for at least one more addition to the series, but Amazon tells me this is a duology only.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.4/5 based on 60 ratings and 29 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.03/5 based on 880 ratings and 64 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “You think you know the score, Deacon,” the girl says, gazing intently at the invisible things she’s drawn on the bar.  “Where the darkness ends and the light begins, all the sins that turn angels into demons.  But you don’t.  Not yet.”

    Scarborough drains the shot glass and sets it down in front of Deacon, wipes his lips with the back of his hand, and the tip of his tongue darts out to catch a stray drop of liquor lingering at the corner of his mouth.

    “Best listen to her, buddy,” he says and jabs a thumb at the girl.  “She’s nutty as squirrel sh*t, but every now and then she starts making sense.”  (pg. 205)

 

    “I need you to believe me when I say that I have absolutely no problem whatsoever killing anyone that tries to help you.”

    “Anyone who,” Chance says.

    “What?”

    “Not anyone that,’ but ‘anyone who,’ because—”

    “You have to be f**king kidding me,” the werewolf barks in its coarse sandpapery monster’s laugh.  “Here I thought you were some sort of geologist, not a g*dd*mn English teacher.”  (pg. 279)

 

“When I was still a little girl, the moon bled for me.”  (pg. 254)

    The cussing is excessive in Low Red Moon.  I noted 42 instances in the first 5% of the book, the favorite of which, unsurprisingly, was the f-bomb.  I think the frequency of profanity continued at about that rate throughout the rest of the book.

 

    There is a lot of worldbuilding in the first part of the book, and that created slow spots.  The author's inclusion of lots of descriptive paragraphs further slows the pacing.  But once the main plot thread is introduced, the storytelling picks up nicely, and the reader is treated to an spinetingling tale of Horror.

 

    The slow-moving writing style bothered me, as well as several other reviewers.  But hey, that’s a personal taste only, and you may well enjoy the detailed renderings of the settings.  If you're in the mood for a tale of Urban Horror featuring changelings, werewolves, and vampires, "this blood's for you."

 

    7 Stars.  One last thing.  There are a dozen or so music references in Low Red Moon.  Take it from me, Caitlin Kiernan has excellent and eclectic music tastes.